Henning Webb Prentis Jr.

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Henning Webb Prentis Jr.
Henning Webb Prentis Jr.jpg
Born(1884-07-11)July 11, 1884
DiedOctober 29, 1959(1959-10-29) (aged 75)
OccupationPresident
Employer Armstrong Cork Company,

Henning Webb Prentis Jr. (July 11, 1884 - October 29, 1959) was an American industrialist, known as president of the Armstrong Cork Company, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, and recipient of the Henry Laurence Gantt Medal in 1956. [1] In the 1940s, he described the “Prentis Cycle”, according to which popular self-governance leads people from bondage to abundance and back to bondage.

Armstrong Cork Company building in Pennsylvania, United States

The Armstrong Cork Company was a cork manufacturer located at 2349 Railroad Street in the Strip District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company's building was built circa 1901, and designed by architect Frederick J. Osterling. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 10, 2005, and to the List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks in 2007.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is an advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, with additional offices across the country. It is the nation's largest manufacturing industrial trade association, representing 14,000 small and large manufacturing companies in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Jay Timmons has led the organization as President and CEO since 2011.

The Henry Laurence Gantt Medal was established in 1929 by the American Management Association and the Management section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for "distinguished achievement in management and service to the community" in honour of Henry Laurence Gantt. By the year 1984 in total 45 medals had been awarded.

Contents

Life and work

Prentis was a son of Henning Webb Prentis Sr. and Mary Morton McNutt Prentis. [2] He was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, attended Central High School in St. Louis graduating in 1901, and obtained his AB from the University of Missouri in 1903 [3]

University of Missouri American public state university

The University of Missouri is a public, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It was founded in 1839 as the first public institution of higher education west of the Mississippi River. The state's largest university, it enrolled 30,870 students in 2017 and offered over 300 degree programs in 21 academic divisions. It is the flagship campus of the University of Missouri System, which also has campuses in Kansas City, Rolla, and St. Louis. There are more than 300,000 MU alumni living worldwide with over one half residing in Missouri.

After his graduation in 1903 he started his career in industry. In 1907 he joined the Armstrong Cork Company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he worked his way up to First Vice President in 1933. [3] In 1934 he became the next president of the Armstrong Cork Company. In his later years he was also president of the National Association of Manufacturers.

In 1956 the American Management Association and the ASME awarded him the annual Henry Laurence Gantt Medal for distinguished achievement in industrial management as a service to the community." [4]

American Management Association

The American Management Association (AMA) is an American non-profit educational membership organization for the promotion of management, based in New York City. The association has its headquarter in New York City, and has local head-offices throughout the world.

ASME professional association

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing education, training and professional development, codes and standards, research, conferences and publications, government relations, and other forms of outreach." ASME is thus an engineering society, a standards organization, a research and development organization, an advocacy organization, a provider of training and education, and a nonprofit organization. Founded as an engineering society focused on mechanical engineering in North America, ASME is today multidisciplinary and global.

The Prentis Cycle

In a 1943 address to the University of Pennsylvania entitled Tʜᴇ Cᴜʟᴛ ᴏғ Cᴏᴍᴘᴇᴛᴇɴᴄʏ (later reprinted as Iɴᴅᴜsᴛʀɪᴀʟ Mᴀɴᴀɢᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ ɪɴ ᴀ Rᴇᴘᴜʙʟɪᴄ), Prentis described what has become known as The Prentis Cycle in which, he asserted, "popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within", as:

From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more. [5]

In a 1946 book, Prentis renamed one stage of the cycle and added two stages. The cycle, as revised, is:

From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to freedom; from freedom to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency ; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to fear; from fear to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more. [6]

Selected publications

Articles, a selection
Books

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References

  1. Lester Robert Bittel, Muriel Albers Bittel (1978), Encyclopedia of professional management. p. 456
  2. Who's who in Finance and Industry, Marquis Who's Who, 1955. p. 835
  3. 1 2 The University of Missouri, "The Prentis Brothers" in: The Missouri Alumnus. December 1933.
  4. Supervisory Management, Vol. 7, 1962. p. 4.
  5. Prentis, Henning (February 1943). The Cult of Competency (PDF) (Speech). Mid-Year Convocation. University of Pennsylvania: ergo-sum.net.
  6. Prentis, Henning Webb (1946). Bulwarks of freedom. The Newcomen Society of England, American Branch. p. 11.